UPPING THE TEMPO
CARRIE RAE CUNNINGHAM’S (42) LOVE OF DANCE HAS LED TO A REWARDING CAREER
Carrie Rae’s dream job
When your passion is dance, being paid to go to lots of dance shows is the dream job.
I’m the artistic director of the Tempo Dance Festival, which is held in Auckland every October and features a selection of amazing dancers from around New Zealand and also overseas. It’s my job to find the different acts, which means I get to go to lots of performances.
Going to see a dance performance is almost like going to church for me – it really feeds me spiritually.
As a kid I loved to dance, but didn’t go to classes until I was 18, which is pretty late. I grew up in a small Mississippi town, in a large family that didn’t have money for dance lessons. I was an English major doing creative writing at the University of Memphis in Tennessee when I went to my first dance class – you had to do a physical education elective and there was one called Modern Dance 101 that sounded cool.
Ten minutes into the class, I had an epiphany. I thought, ‘Wow, this is what I want to do.’ I just loved it. I ended up doing a double degree in English and dance, which took me five years.
I was behind the eight ball in terms of technique – a lot of people start dancing at four or five years old so I was playing a massive game of catch-up. I worked my butt off, going to every single class I could. At times I struggled to keep up, but when we did improv or performed something we had choreographed ourselves I felt a lot more at ease.
I was told I made up for not being technically savvy by having real performance quality, which was a big compliment. I took advantage of contemporary dance, which allows you to be a lot more expressive rather than technical. I like to think my lack of formal training has helped me become really creative as a dancer and a choreographer.
After my first year of dance, I got accepted into the university dance company. At times I felt like a phony, performing with all these incredible dancers who had trained for years. I would think, ‘What am I doing? Who am I fooling?’ It really was a case of fake it ‘til you make it.
Along with performing, I did a lot of writing about dancing. I’d write up critical thinking about the shows we did to help audiences understand what it was all about.
My other love is travel and in my third year at university I got a scholarship to study abroad. I went to Malta, which is an amazing place. I was only meant to be there for three months, but I stayed for a year and a half.
After finishing my degrees in Memphis, I didn’t know what to do with myself and after working for an arts council for a while, I decided to go back to school – I’m a nerd at heart. But I still had itchy feet and wanted to see more of the world. So I ended up doing my masters degree in dance studies at the University of Auckland.
I arrived in 2003 and only planned to stay until 2005, but one husband and three daughters later, I am still here! I love New Zealand. It has the perks of being a developed western country, but it also has a chilled-out island vibe. And the people are great.
I first started working for Tempo back in 2008. They needed a copywriter and it was perfect for me as I had two young kids and could do a lot of the work from home.
I then moved on to doing marketing and producing, and three years ago I stepped up into the artistic director role.
It’s a busy job but also very rewarding. I am just so wowed by the talent there is in this country. I love being able to give these incredible dancers the chance to put their work on stage. I have to know what’s going on in the dance scene and in busy times I will go to as many as four or five shows a week. My husband Kynan is very patient and now my girls are older, they come to some of the shows – we have a roster to work out who gets to go.
They like being able to share my passion. My oldest Lucinda (12) and my youngest Truvy (8) both dance. My middle one Iris (11) is more interested in horses.
I also get the chance to go overseas to festivals to see acts we might be able to get for Tempo. This year we’ve got the LA Contemporary Dance Company coming.
I go to Australia a lot and I’ve also been going to festivals in China. As well as overseas dancers coming to New Zealand to perform, they can also work with our dance community while they are here and hopefully we can set up a reciprocal exchange network so more
Kiwi dancers can go abroad.
I don’t get the chance to dance much myself anymore, apart from going to the odd ballet class. One of these days,
I’d like to bring back a show I wrote, directed and performed in. It’s called the Finger Family Tent Revival, about a travelling evangelical group, based on Southern Baptist revivals I used to go to as a kid, with charismatic preachers, people speaking in tongues and snake handling. It was fun, so I’d like to do that again. I just need to find the time!”